TIG Welding Basics part 3 - Which Polarity for What 

Jodi you sir are a national asset. I'm an old retired engineer who who worked in a weapon system test laboratory. I was not a professional welder but I needed to weld aluminum , stainless, and sometimes cobalt for tests I performed for the department of defense. I have several of your "TIG fingers", what a great product to enhance weld quality by increasing the comfort to the weld technician so they make better welds. I still enjoy your videos in my retirement years. Son you have an excellent channel and a magnificent way of presenting your subject matter. God bless.

Jodi! Been watching your videos for 2 yrs now! Got the welder, got the Cylinder on order, getting the Argon next, and I’m getting some TIG Fingers and other things off your website! My way of paying you back for such phenomenal information!!! Really appreciate all your knowledge and instructions! Thank you!!!

IF you like this video, I would appreciate it if you share it with a friend, hit the thumbs up button, or subscribe..see you next week

Your vids are the best thank you for not over talking and always getting straight to the point I don’t , I don’t mind stories but I can see you’re all about teaching..People who do nothing but talk it makes me question whether they even know anything

love the tig series. Finally got a decent sized gas bottle for my machine. Designed a cart And spent most of the weekend tig welding it together. Your videos helped a lot. There is no substitute for torch time though I could easily see improvement in my welds from the start of the cart to the end. I'll be waiting for the next installment. Thanks again

Love the demo welding the aluminium on reverse polarity. Very good visual lesson i will not forget. Thanks

Jodi, thank you for these INCREDIBLE videos! Even six years after theyre posted theyre continuing to teach! Cheers to many more years and videos.

Love your videos Jodi! Im a pipefitter/welder for Shell Oil and your tips on aluminum saved a recent project that we came across welding some aluminum structural steel at our wharf. Particularly setting up a dynasty 200 on the balance and hertz settings. I told the other guys about your videos and how helpful they are as well.

Jody, I really appreciate you doing these videos. I started welding at the age of 11 on an old Lincoln "Tombstone" using 6013 electrodes. I later started MIG welding and found it to be so easy that I felt like I was cheating in some way because my welds were always so beautiful! Now, at the age of 52, I've finally bought myself a multi-process machine and I'm learning to "TIG" weld. I've always wanted to "TIG" and be able to "stack dimes" because there's nothing more beautiful to me than a properly laid weld bead. I feel that I'm relearning to weld now because the curve is so steep and the process requires so much coordination. I've been able to learn from watching you weld and it's been a great help as far as setup of the machine and proper techniques. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. Keep doing this. It's actually helping others like myself and for me it's helping me to realize a dream!!

when i bought my welder and went past a welding shop to buy some tungstens and filler rod etc i just happened to see the tig fingers hanging on the wall, and im in australia by the way and hell its gotta be the BEST thing i ever bought to add into my welding gear (second best to my unimig razorshield welding goggles) ive started from a big mess of crude fluxcored MIG watching jodys videos i have gotten myself to welding alluminum intake plenums, steel brackets fixtures whatevers, ALOT of custom fabrication of things on my car which is a VL calais turbo here in australia and i couldnt have dont any of it without jodys videos i bought a CIGweld 200AC/DC and its a great machine, even though im still learning and have only started to do some super sweet AL welds, the extra settings are well worth it and they always come in handy aswell as for DC welding on SS and MS Heaps of thanks jody for the super welding vids you put out, if only you would put them out more than once a week! -Jonny

I"ll speak on behalf of my experience with the TIG FINGER. Im the most humble welder in my company, we know how welders can get, and I have proved that my welds in appearance and integrity are superior to my co-workers. Yea they say im CHEATING, but how am I cheating? cuz I work smarter and not harder?get the TIG Finger you'll see what I mean. and Thank you Jody for making this available.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. It is so much easier today, thanks to the Internet, to learn pretty much anything. What I like about your videos is that you get straight to the point. Keep it up!

hey Jody. just started tig welding and your video's are helping me so much..wish i could borrow you for a day would learn so much...thanks for the help...(welder Inverter DC 200 with slope) nothing fancy...

The best teacher ever.. The tig finger is great and useable.

Please keep your videos coming.Got most if not all of your DVD's.Thanks So Much..

hi jody. love all your tips and videos on tig welding and other welding process. it helps me a lot on my job as a machinist / welder. inspired me a lot to pursue welding as a career. more power on you, thanks a lot!

I ran this same Lincoln welder for years at my fab shop. It never let us down and did everything we asked of it. We only replaced it as I got a great deal on a Lincoln square wave 255 and sold the 175 for the same price as we paid for the 255. I was actually kind of sad to see it go. Great machine.

Thanks for another great video for a newbie like me!! Best I can tell you are a gifted welder/teacher and a heck of a good guy!

New to tig welding and late comer to your videos.. Want to thank you for very concise instruction and tips on what to purchase...

All of these videos are great. I bought all of the DVD's and two tig fingers and a long sleeve shirt in a bundle. Very helpful to be able to look back to a video for a reference. The tig finger is awesome too. I need to get a couple more for at work. I definitely recommend them for anyone that does a lot of aluminum.

I can really appreciate all of you'r work that you do, especially that tig finger i made the suggestion to a local welding shop of mine to get some in and sure enough they had a box of them next time i went in, it was a great addition to my tig supplies and one of the first things i grab when i have a job to do! Thanks again!

I was about to look up how to weld Au and open my subscriptions and see this. Perfect timing!

Awesome video. The explanation of the physics/electricity of this type of process was awesome. Please keep sharing that type of information with us!

I just got my tig finger xl and I use it for mig welding. Love it! I beat the crap out of my regular tig finger and the larger one is much better for what I do which can be up to 10 foot welds running at around 300 amps.

Thanks! Best explanation I've seen yet of DC versus AC. And I appreciate you very last comment, it's important to our kids.

I REALLY liked the way you showed how aluminum needs to be welded with A/C as opposed to D/C... Everybody always told me just use A/C but not why....Now I know..

I really like your videos, about year ago I worked on some parts with my friends tig welder, been itching for one myself. Finally last Friday I was able to order one it'll be here Thursday and you videos are awesome lots of info and lots of good visual aids to help get a understanding of techniques and knowledge. Really appreciate it and have a good day!

shameless plug or not, you seem pretty genuine, gotta like that in people...really liked the final words "take care of your family"...that says a lot about your character also....A+

Jody: small correction: DCEN means the current is flowing from the workpiece into the electrode. Current flows from (+) to (-). Electrons flow from (-) to (+).

Awesome video Joey! I recently purchased a Airco 300 Ac/DC machine and your videos have helped me big time! Right now its scratch start until I can figure out why my pedal isn't working. But regardless it works very well. Thanks again for the great videos!!

What would Dc + be good for ? ... Anvil working out great ! Just my sloppy stick skills need fixin

Very precise and very nice talk about this technical issue. Excellent video as usual. Many thanks.

Thanks for explaining the WHY behind the different welding conditions and materials :)

Hi Jody, I like the way you do the explaining combined with the demo, it's very well done. Take care, Pierre P.S. Yes, the TIG finger I like to use...! Good purchase.

The guilt of getting all this great info for free went away with the purchase of a tig finger bundle! Just sayin!! lol Cheers Jody

I have both TIG fingers and not sure how I ever survived without them. They glide easy on the metal.

u guys don't even knowwwww how badly that tig finger saved my ass. welding titanium i can't just whip my torch away after im done welding i have to keep the argon flowing. With the tig finger i can stay propped for as long as i need. thanks again. tig finger ftw

Like the tig series, also the tig finger works well.

This makes me feel better about my square wave 175, as that is what I have. I bought it as a universal tool, but have not used it much. I have been watching your programs for a while now though, and it is coming together better in my head, just need to put into practice now. Where is the time?

Lol. That Lincoln is the welder i use. It's the one we have at work and I thought myself to weld with. Works well I just need to practice more.

Good info, that guy you mentioned really progressed well indeed. I think having experience with the oxy-acetleyne helped him quite a bit moving around those joints. I've used 3 different miller syncrowave 250DX machines and they all have really crappy low amperage starts....very difficult to weld at low amperage.

Enjoyable and instructive. Thanks. I'm saving up for a welder.

Just awesome! So much to learn and put to use! Thanks Jody

nossa brother Voce é muito bom no que faz , assisto todos os seus videos , um abração do seu amigo do Brasil

Really informative video Jody,more informed now about welding polarities

First off.. great content man. Very informative and thorough with what you do & why. Your work is world class I've been following this series. I would love to know what table you most often use (or recommend) for mock up.. fab & finish on small to intermediate sized projects? I don't have tons of space like yourself. Thank you sir for your time & efforts in this tutorial series. Got me fired up for my tig work!

Hey Jody, how about a video on hard facing,steel to steel and dirt to steel.Always enjoy you videos.

I tried welding a .025" bandsaw blade the same way you're doing the razor blade... I'm finding even 25 amp to be too hot unless I move VERY fast. Seems to work better at about 15 amp or even 10 amp. Or maybe 30 amps with pulsing...

Jody = Awesomeness that can't be described! :)

Tig finger is pretty great for propping with stick and Mig, I hear it’s good for tig too but I’ve never tried it.

Hey Jody, Thanks for another great video! Your site is a fantastic resource as I learn to weld; really appreciate your dedication!! Love my #TigFinger can't imagine tigging without it

That's awesome! Gotta love good ol Lincolns. Ironic I was looking into buying that same exact Lincoln squarewave over the newer 200 amp squarewave, I'd prefer a transformer over a inverter any day. More reliable imo

Firstly thankyou for your very educational films. I have learnt so much from watching your channel. I only understood MIG before but now think I could give TIG a good go thanks to your educational resource. I have 1 question about welding copper plate. I have a project which will be using 3mm copper plate to build a model steam locomotive boiler. Can TIG be used purely to provide heat to the material and thus melt the silver solder. In this case I would be using TIG as a localised heatsource as an alternative oxy-acet.

I would like the demo to show your hand / tig finger support technique when welding free hand as opposed to walking the cup

TIG FINGER: welders best friend!!! Awesome vid Jody you can never stop learning lol. Any chance you can do 6G vids for CUNI and chrome some job sites I've been on require combo welders to pass about 10 tests and CUNI and chrome are two metals Included I haven't had to weld em yet.

thanks for the video Jodi always looking forward to more

Excelente los videos!!!... estaria mejor si los hacen tambien en español. Desde Argentina... Saludos!

Brilliant videos thank you ♥️👁️👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Hey Jody, Thanks again for a great demo on welding. I have been following you for several years and I truly appreciate your passion for teaching. Thank you! Now my question. What is the difference in weld quality when welding AL on AC tig vs mig with a spool gun. Are not most mig machines DC? Could you also maybe do a slice and dice comparison of both of them? Thanks Kyle.

Hey Jody, Thanks again for a great demo on welding. I have been following you for several years and I truly appreciate your passion for teaching. Thank you! Now my question. What is the difference in weld quality when welding AL on AC tig vs mig with a spool gun. Are not most mig machines DC? Could you also maybe do a slice and dice comparison of both of them? Thanks Kyle.

great advice w/the heat protection. my glove always gets hot way too fast haha.

Hi, thank you for vids, knit, to the point. Can you please give your tips on how to avoid bending material. I tig weld aluminium profiles, but especially with T joints I always experience visible bending. Do you know how to effectively get around it? Regards from Warsaw/Poland (you really have worldwide reception) :) Adam

How are you holding the torch right on the cup? I would burn myself if I did that but I would like to be able to for more control when free-hand TIG welding.

What about frequency? How 50Hz compare to 150Hz. How that affects the weld? And what about advanced machine settings if you have those?

Could you make an in between tig finger. Great job jodie

Ilovethis channel!

PLEASE DO A INDEPTH TUNGSTEN ELECTRODE test with every kind......like really indepth like 50 arc starts and 250 amps AC inverter....

Love your videos keep up the good work!

This man is a real pro who the hell pressed the unlike button?

May be a dumb question but say I have a AC/DC welding machine and I want to weld aluminium do I still plug my electrode into the negative and switch on AC mode or does it not matter what electrode is plugged into?

of course you are refering to the direction of the current as the direction of negative charge movement. Right?

Hi,can u show pulsed tig weld on 5mm brass plate ? Im having difficulties on corner weld using pulsed tig weld.thanks

It’s pretty simple. Electrode positive: electrode is extra hot Electrode negetive: base metal is extra hot AC: animal crossing

I have an ac dc welder So would I plug my electrode in positive or negative socket to weld aluminium on ac ?

What is the tool or apparatus thelat sits on top of the welding piece at the 6 minute mark?

One question for you Jody: While you say you can do a lot with a basic machine, is it smarter to buy a more advanced machine with the idea that you'll 'grow into it'? I like the idea of saving money but I'm concerned I'll need to buy another machine later. Any thoughts? BTW, another GREAT video. Thanks again.

great video

Thank you!

Very helpful good stuff!

Great videos! Question: What are those copper or brass Y-shaped fingers that you're using to ground the part to the table?

Awesome hey Jodi quick question I have the thermal arc 211i is there another tig torch that will plug in to my machine the torch on it is very awkward for me I am used to a 20 on my dynasty 350 at work. Thanks

awesome video!!

Could you do a sharpening of electrodes video?

JODY HELP! QUICK QUESTION HERE. ... I know a lot of people may benefit from this. Why wouldn't I use a 3/32" electrode for tig welding 10 gauge sheet metal or 1/16" square tubing or small stainless .065" wall tubing? I know you probably get asked this a lot. Would a bigger electrode blow out the metal because of a bigger heat zone print? I am just wondering why one would go down to 1/16" electrode or smaller. Thanks again.

Jody whats the post flow on that lincoln? is it determined by amperage or just a factory pre set number

Where or how can I get a tig finger in Australia ?

I know this is a TIG video, but, if I'm MIG welding 1018 steel (part of a roll cage), ideally i want DCEP or DCEN? Or does it really matter for MIG? I've seen both done and seen that DCEP yields better penetration, but I'd love to know why. Maybe because the heat is a bit more spread out and the puddle is deeper? I really don't know.

been having a lot of trouble with my 250 amp tig heats up the job but will not puddle anymore ad melts the ally away,thinking its just me i have tried alternating the polarity swithching leads but no joy any suggestions,mebe a transistor has gone on ac?

Could you imagine some tough biker shop thats running the process requiring pure helium shielding 🤣 Whole shop of bearded, tattooed guys talking, grunting, and swearing in high pitched squeeky voices.

have you both any helmet from cyberweld? if do, what is your thought. thanks.

How to order your tig finger?

hi mic fron mexico i have a question im using miller dialarc 250 stic with my wire feeder as mig welder but the problem is when i turn it on the wire is hot all the time .could i put him electric coil to control it with the switch on the gun and where to put it anyone have any idea how to do it or if there is a better solution please help thank you

awesome vid! hell yea

Hi Jody, I have question about stick welding. I have problems welding with 7018 electrodes starting an arc. I have 130 amps inverter machine and I'm using 3/32 inch electrodes. Sometimes arc starts straight away and other times electrode is sticking like crazy. I was welding 3/16 inch material to 1/2 inch material at about 90 amps, electrode was sticking whole time. Was amperage too low or its just a matter of technique?

I just bought a Hobart 210 MVP and am gonna teach myself with yours and others videos. Been needing to do this for a long time. With the right (custom) electrodes, can a MIG be turned into a stick or DC Tig machine?

I’m thinking of buying a tig I was wondering if I need ac

now jodi i know this is a very asked question but hear me out here. i have a stick welder that i use for my scratch start tig. Well it has a AC set-up on it, but i dont really under stain why it's almost like a sin in the welding world.

I just bought a set of your tig fingers

My machine allows you to switch polarity between torch and earth clamp. Should the torch be in the positive for AC TIG? Manufacturer does not specify. Machine: BOC smootharc 175 ac/DC.

Dear sir I’m trying to contact you in all social media that whatever you have provided on your website but it’s not happening Please give a reply , and it will be great help for me to learn and to implement some welding process for my present employer organisation I’m basically form INDIA 🇮🇳, but now I’m working as a WELDING TEAM LEAD AND SUPERVISOR in SAUDI ARABIA in an oil and petroleum sector, Please can you guide me for MIG WELDING CLADDING for INCONEL 625 series Please help me to learn about this Please Thanks